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Top DIY home design and planning apps for remodeling
What better way to plan for a home renovation project than with your smartphone?
Why mess about with notepads and documents when these apps can help you keep all your inspiration and design ideas in one place on one device? If you’re out shopping for materials or furniture, you can pull out your phone and check the relevant app where you’ve saved your plans or ideas.
We’ve looked at the apps available for planning and completing your home renovation and found the 10 most popular for both iOS and Android.
This guide at a glance...
Top renovation planning apps
Home Design 3D
This app allows you to plan out your future home or the renovation of your current home with 2D and 3D plans. Gold version for iOS gives you full access to all features for $9.99. Some features are only available with the paid version.
Features
- Import plans
- Work in 3D or 2D
- Share via Dropbox
- Add and move furniture
Room Planner LE Home Design
Map out and plan your next home or that room you’ve always wanted to change. Measure rooms precisely to ⅛ of an inch with in-app Bluetooth laser measuring. Note: LE version doesn’t save.
Features
- Lay out all rooms with accurate measuring
- Play with materials, colors and textures before you build
- Design your whole house or just one room
Roomle
With augmented reality view and 3D walkthrough, Roomle is the future of floor-planning apps. Award-winning design app with access to hundreds of pieces of furniture and decorative items.
Features
- Sketch using your finger
- Precisely adjust angles and dimensions
- Share your designs
- Augmented reality view
Photo Measures
Save time and paper by taking photos of your rooms and annotating notes to the images with dimensions. Now you can always have your room measurements with you when you’re furniture shopping. Free version will watermark images when saved.
Features
- Draw measurements on your photos
- Edit anytime
- Zoom in and out for precision
- Add comments for more info
- Export to PDF or JPG
MagicPlan
Create a map of your home with measurements and angles just by taking pictures. Comes with the option to export to various programs. Smart device must have a gyroscope for auto measures to work.
Features
- No need to measure
- Move furniture digitally before committing
- Simple to use for DIY enthusiasts
Home Design 3D Outdoor and Garden
Design and build your dream garden and outdoor entertaining area. With 3D viewability, you can get a more realistic image of your vision.
Features
- Design your dream outdoor area in minutes
- Use the exact dimensions of your outdoor area
- Cancel and restore design ideas
Planner 5D
Create beautiful and realistic plans for your home or for that room you want to update. You can choose the interior items that you want in the room and plan the design. iOS also has Bathroom Design 5D, Kitchen Design 5D, Bedroom Design 5D, Kids Room Design 5D and Office Design 5D.
Features
- View and make screenshots in 2D as well as realistic 3D HD
- Share your designs with your social media contacts for feedback
- Alter a plan from the gallery or start from scratch to make it more personal
Planning apps – comparison table
App | Free | In-AppPurchases | Buy NowRatings |
|---|---|---|---|
 HomeDesign 3D |  | | Android – 4.4  iOS – 4.4 |
| Room Planner LE Home Design | | | Android – 3.4 iOS – 2.7 |
 Roomle | | | Android – 2.9 iOS – 3.7 |
 PhotoMeasures | |  | Android – 4.3 iOS – 4.5 |
| MagicPlan | | | Android – 4.2 iOS – 4.6 |
| Home Design 3D Outdoor and Garden | | | Android – 4.1 iOS – 2.7 |
| Planner 5D | | | Android – 4 iOS – 3.3 |
Interior design apps
If you’re looking for some interior design inspiration after you’ve completed that home renovation, these are two of the many apps available.
Houzz Interior Design Ideas
If you’re looking for inspiration or want to redesign your entire home, Houzz has plenty of options. It also comes with prices, so it’s easy to budget.
Features
- Create idea boards for current and future design projects
- Chat with others looking to design to get ideas and inspiration
- Go from looking online to on the go with the same account
Homestyler Interior Design
Place design items and styles in your home before you commit. Use Homestyler as your fitting room for design ideas and find inspiration from the many user-created pics available.
Features
- Create your own profile to share your designs and ideas with other Homestylers
- Connect with professionals who can assist with your design projects
- Browse the huge selection of designs to get help and inspiration
Interior design apps – comparison table
App | Free | In-app | Buy NowRatings |
|---|---|---|---|
 Houzz Interior Designs Ideas | | | Android – 4.6 iOS – 4.8 |
 Homestyler Interior Design | | | Android – 4.1 iOS – 4.3 |
Read all about home renovations
Special mention apps
Some of the great apps out there are sometimes only available in either the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store. Here are some we found.
RoomScan Pro LE Home Design (iOS)
The quickest and simplest way to create your home floor plan. Just tap your iPhone on each wall a few times and it will measure and draw it all itself.
Features
- Measure to the nearest 10 centimeters
- Rooms automatically connect to create floor plan
- Measurements available in metric and imperial
Floor Plan Creator (Android)
Create your floor plan with ease and include furniture to make sure it fits. Have your designs and plans with you when you shop to check sizing and placement.
Features
- Predefined room shapes or freestyle draw your own.
- Supports metric and imperial measurements
- Supports Leica Disto bluetooth laser meters
Handyman Calculator (Android)
The app that has all the calculations a DIY handyman would need. Also includes a time tracker so you can tell if you’ll get your job done within a planned time frame.
Features
- Multiple calculators and converters
- Save calculation results to a notepad
HandyMobi home improvement DIY (Android)
Plan, organize and implement that home DIY project you have been wanting to do. Includes a shopping list so you can know what you need when shopping for materials.
Features
- View step-by-step guides with pictures or videos
- Calculate cost of materials
- Share your project and progress with friends and family
Handy Construction Calculator (Android)
Accurate and easy-to-use construction calculator. Total of 70+ calculators that can be used by professionals and DIY enthusiasts.
Features
- Easy to use all-in-one calculator for all construction needs
- Switch between metric and imperial measurements
- Built-in result sharing for email, text or copy/paste elsewhere.
Special mention apps – comparison table
App | Free | Paid | In-AppPurchases | Ratings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 RoomScanPro (iOS) | | | | 4.3 |
| Floor Plan Creator (Android) | | | | 4.1 |
 HandymanCalculator (Android) | | | | 4.5 |
 Handy Mobihome improvement DIY (Android) | | | | 3.5 |
| Handy Construction Calculator (Android) | | $7.99 | | 4.4 |
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